From Milan To New York, The Art World Is Celebrating Mike Kelley

VICE United States

July 18th marked the one year anniversary of Mike Kelley's ashes being scattered at Bryce Canyon in Utah. Mike died of an apparent suicide over a year and a half ago in Los Angeles, but his legacy as a video and installation artist is just beginning.

Reflecting on Mike's death, John Waters said Mike was his “favorite living artist,” and Mike’s former art professor John Baldessari said the late artist was “a bit like Jesus.” Since we last reported on Kelley’s memorial, a flurry of retrospectives have opened. The current show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris runs until August 5 and then travels to MoMA PS1 in New York on October 7—which is funny since Mike was critical of the New York art world and once said the historical timeline of the MoMa is "pure bullshit." And another epic show runs at the HangarBicocca in Milan until September 8th.